Newbie to mac

[sanctus]

Hi all,

from university I just received a new laptop. It is a mac.

I have never used Mac before, so I wanted to know if anyone knows some good online tutorials.

 

I would like a tutorial on how to use Mac in general (in the Windows kind of way) and how to use it linux-like (i.e. from comand line), if there is a difference to linux obviously :phones:

 

A big thanks in advance.

[Tormod]

Mac Rumors: Apple Mac Rumors and News You Care About

 

Apple - Support - Switch 101

 

Or come see me. :phones:

[alexander]

major difference from linux, for all intents and purposes, its a Unix-based OS (well in reality its not, but for all intents you care about, it is)

 

say goobai to all conveniences.

 

things you will want are a pms, darwin ports are ok, so you can install your much needed nix apps :)

 

next, you will want to set transoparency on terminal, set bg to black, so it looks like a terminal

 

note, you cant do a lot of system stuff with os x, there's no dmesg, there is no lspci, there is no easy way to manage devices (as in /dev/hda), there is no easy way to get to the firewall (use Watergate i think, its a mac firewall manager)

 

for security, download and install LittleSnitch, really, really handy application also i run ClamAV for an antivirus

 

you want to go through the system and delete all the useless apps that are either trialed, or you will never use... like i parted with ichat, video tools, like idvd, office trials, garage band ... iphoto might be next, just junk like that that takes up valuable space (that does not mean that there are no apps that took some spots, i use audacity and traktor extensively for my music; i use apperture 2, PS and Inkscape for pictures and drawing and stuff, and i have had no need for video tools...)

 

Oh download and install VLC for video, god, the best program i have, i hate quicktime (and i have PRO)...

 

Oh and set up your workspaces, you'll want that if you are used to nix, disable tap on mouse pad, enable scrolling using 2 fingers and disable blue tooth...

 

bout a decent start into setting up a mac... for me, do whatever YOU feel necessary to set it up for your liking, and dont hessitate to ask specific questions, always here to help you...

 

oh and keep your system updated :)

[Tormod]

Tons of cool apps to be had for your Mac Sanctus. I agree with Alex, you can kick out a lot of what comes packaged, but iPhoto '08 is pretty cool IMHO.

 

You can definitely use dmesg (works on my Mac at least). The terminal is quite powerful, but I use it mostly to operate the Hypo server remotely.

[alexander]

i was just giving examples... i think dmesg works fine, its a bit cryptic, but as i said, i was merely giving examples of the type of commands :)

 

I use Apperture, once you have that, iphoto has this primitiveness to it :) besides i work with a lot of raw files ;)

[sanctus]

lol, I never used dmesg before, what does it exactly do, the info in man dmesg does not tell me too much...

 

Also what some1 told me to install was flink or something similar, in order to get aptitude like on ubuntu (apt-get install and such). I think that is a cool idea, so I can get the different know ubuntu packages.

 

Is there a way to make have the different desktops different backgrounds (agreed alex, multiple desktop is the first thing I have enabled)? I would like that.

 

More questions to come B)

[buddyzen]

In my opinion you should just recreate the scene from office space and just smash that mac to pieces. You should definately just stick with a PC, apple does not need encouragement B)

[sanctus]

With PC you do mean Windows, because then I really wonder why!

[Theory5]

Leave now and never return.

:-P

Yes when someone says PC it means WIndows. Im sure if you google something like "Mac tools" or "mac tutorials" you could find stuff to help you. You can run windows on a mac, god forbid. Try boot camp When I tryed to install windows or linux on one of those G3 things it wouldnt let me. its like the bios is configured only to handle apple related OS's...

[Tormod]

apple does not need encouragement B)

 

I don't think Sandro is in a position to choose. Lucky stiff! :doh:

[alexander]

When I tryed to install windows or linux on one of those G3 things it wouldnt let me.

 

clearly, ignorance has no boundaries, does it...?

Let me tell you where YOU failed:

you failed to realize that Windows does not support the Power PC processor architecture. You should like ask people before you attempt things like that, and in the eyes of people that know a little more about operating systems then hitting the start button, it makes you, honestly, look really bad. I wont even go in the details of the linux attempt, i will just say i have an early g4 running a customized ubuntu, right now... (G4's are also PPC)

 

and just smash that mac to pieces

Sanctus, dont listen to the ignorant fools, macs are excellent pieces of equipment, dont ruin them with windows if you dont HAVE to. And if you do, buy vmware and install windows in a VM, cool thing about mac is that you can drop the vmware background and have the application running in a windows VM, but act as if its running in OS X, its real neat, let me see if i can link you to a demo

 

here: YouTube - Unity in VMware Fusion for Mac OS X http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIApJMzGzDQ

 

P.S. I use the term "ignorant fools" as a matter of speach, infact i dont mean to offend anyone here. theory, buddy, dont take it personally, its just that i get tired of both sides of the fence, i get tired of windows people not knowing anything about machines, i am tired of linux people screaming that everyone should be converting to linux, and mac people screaming that they are not vulnerable, and also not knowing squat about computers, as a techie all those make me rather upset. So it is nothing personal, trust me, i am the last person who would want to offend you, ask anyone here....

[alexander]

and vmware is cool with snapshots, if you ever mess up that windows vm, just restore to a previous snapshot in 3 clicks and like a minute :)

 

oh, dont limit yourself to windows vms, i have multiple distros of linux on mine, BSD, and this minix-based OS that is UBER fast and takes up like 3 megs of space, written in assembly and C. And i play with them sometimes, fire up a couple of vm's and see what you can do to/with them :)...

[sanctus]

Now why would I want windows on a mac? The only reason I still have a dual boot on my private laptop with windows and fedora (I know xubuntu is cooler, but I have now too many things installed...) is because it is easier to play games...and mac all games I play work as well so...

In research in physics there is really no reason to have Windows and since that is what I do in life...

 

I had the choice to get a mac or linux laptop, I chose mac because if I chose linux I would not get any IT support from the university.

 

But if I ever need windows I will follow your suggestion with a VM

[alexander]

you can dual boot os x and linux, you know :) and linux is uber fast on the new macs :) its really nice hardware...

[alexander]

I will once again apologize if i have come through as a bit harsh or flaming, i was only hoping that it will provoke you to do some more research and by that learn something new, not trying to put anyone down, please dont feel that way.

 

Theory, if it's something of interest i can give you some info on processors, architectures, instruction sets, and what that means in terms of OS support.

 

Buddy, if you are interested i can explain to you the evolution and the thought behind macs, and why smashing them to pieces is a stereotypical thing that all "PC junkies" say, and dont understand...

[Theory5]

Alexander, calm down its fine, no offense taken. :-P

They were school computers we were given to mess around with so no harm was done. We tried to get Linux to run on them but It didnt work either. I think the reason why I was trying to do that was because when we opened it up, it had almost the same parts that some of the older school machines had, except these had an apple stamp on them. :-)

The thing was, if you put in an OS disk that had an .exe on it, it actually showed a picture of a folder and an "X" (or something like that, it was a while ago).

Its my preference to use PC's because of all the flexability that they have. Yes, macs are better for multimedia and home use for the user that knows nothing, but they are also very pricey.

on the occasion that I have been asked about switching to Macs, I outline the pro's and con's of both PC's and Macs and I base suggestions on what people are looking for in a computer.

I agree with you alexander, sometimes people just get annoying because they dont understand the thing they dont like, and they think theirs is the best in the world. I know that mac's have stuff like bootcamp but honestly, why would you waste a perfectly good windows OS on a mac? :-)

[alexander]

yes, i also could never understand why would you waste a perfectly good mac and run windows on it, its like running mineral oil and a paper air filter in a koenigsegg ccxr...

 

Yes, macs are better for multimedia and home use for the user that knows nothing

once again, because you dont know a lot about mac and their OS, it seems to you that professionals dont use macs. Thing is, 1/4 of the systems that rendered the last Shrek were the new mac towers quad dual cores... They had a neat dual boot system, linux and mac, Os X was used to run maya, blender, and other 3d and graphical apps during the day to create models and script scenes, at night, they were rebooted into a minimalistic linux that joined the systems to their distributed computing cluster to render the script that was written that day... One of the new and developing uses for mac, OS X is actually not a bad development platform, it combines nice interace and clean tools with the ability to use great open-source engines natively, without looking for a 1/2 working windows port. So a lot of devs are moving to getting macs, infact something like a 15-20% of microsoft coders operate on this platform; its simple actually, mac is stable, and by that reliable, fast, and by that a more attractive reliable option, integrated, designed for users, intuitive, and runs all the important apps that most users need, there is great support from apple (apple care is frigging amazing),oh and one last plus of a mac, it does not use the utterly ****ed, unstructured crazyness, the highest cause for insanity in IT personnel, work of a troubled child on crack, we all know it, sing it with me:

 

It's fun to play with the R-E-GIS-TRY

It's fun to play with the R-E-GIS-TRY

 

If you're ever in doubt,

Then just junk that computer and shout

 

R-E-GIS-TRY, It's fun to play with the

R-E-GIS-TRY-Y

 

...

you get the point :hyper:

 

 

 

What distro did you guys "try" to load on that poor G3?